64 THE REPOKT OF THE No. 36 



lice, which were to be seen also wherever a scar was to he found on trunk or 

 limb; great colonies of open feeding woolly aphids were also frequent on haw- 

 thorns. A clump of European lindens on the College lawn were so beset with lice 

 that the leaves looked as if varnished owing to the incessant dripping of tiny drops 

 of "honey dew/' the sweet excretion from the hosts above; happily a couple of 

 days of heavy rain washed the foliage clean and checked the increase of the aphis 

 army. A handsome copper-beech on a friend's lawn in Hamilton was alarmingly 

 attacked hy another woolly form (the so-called wool is really wax), and its owner 

 feared that permanent injury would result. In other places, maples, birches and 

 various shade and ornamental trees were beset with these minute foes, while on 

 firs and spruce were to be found the giants of the race, great black aphids, a 

 hundred times bigger than the familiar green plant lice, belonging to the genus 

 Lachnus. Widespread and varied indeed were the enemy, but their own foes 

 speedily came to the rescue; Lady-bird beetles, yellow and orange and black, were 

 to be seen in great numbers, and their larvae also were busily engaged in devouring 

 the sweet morsels. The quaint, spiny chrysalids, sticking by their tails to the 

 bark of trees, and occurring in masses, even fifty or more huddled together, were 

 often sent in by ^observers fearing that they might be a new foe, and well pleased 

 to learn that the formidable creatures were veritable friends. Syrphus fly larvae 

 and those of Lace-winged flies, aided by various other aphid eaters, comhined 

 to reduce the swarms, and these with a change of weather conditions, stayed 

 or entirely removed the plague; during the latter part of the summer com- 

 plaints almost ceased to be made. The standard remedies for these insects that 

 live by sucking the juices of plants are kerosene emulsion, tobacco wash or strong 

 soap-suds, preferably that made with whale or fish-oil soap. 



Besides the scale insects referred to by others, there has been a widespread 

 attack made upon trees in northern parts of the city of Toronto by the elm- 

 tree scale (Gossyparia spuria). Last year it only came under my observation 

 from its occurrence on the elms in a single garden, but it must also have been 

 established unnoticed upon many others to have become so abundant this year. 

 It would probably yield to treatment with the lime-sulphur wash applied at the 

 usual time in early spring, but city dwellers with small gardens and few trees 

 have no spraying outfit nor would they like to make use of a remedy so dis- 

 agreeable to those who handle it. In their case much may be done by clearing 

 off the scales with a scrubbing brush dipped from time to time in strong soap- 

 suds. Where the elm-trees in parks, on boulevards and the sides of streets are 

 attacked it is certainly the duty of those employed by the city to have the affected 

 trees properly and thoroughly treated. Any neglect now may result in a wide- 

 spread loss of these beautiful trees which grow so luxuriantly and are so attractive 

 in and around Toronto. 



The Cottony Maple Scale {Pulvinaria innumerdbilis) which is essentially a 

 town insect, attacking many other shade trees beside the maple, and when at its 

 height spreading to plants of almost all kinds in parks and gardens, has been 

 noticeable in several places this year. Like several other injurious insects it has 

 its cycles of abundance and scarcity; increasing in numbers for some years and 

 becoming a veritable plague, and then rapidly diminishing till it ceases to be 

 noticed. This change is due, no doubt, to the attack of parasites combined with 

 unfavorable climatic conditions. Eepeated sprayings with kerosene emulsion when 

 the lice are hatching out from the eggs contained in a waxy, cotton-like mass 

 would keep the insect in check, and should be resorted to as soon as the scale is 

 observed on the trees. 



